Oni: Redemption
by COYoteProductions
Summary: Collaberation with Marioninja1. Remember that the other side of the story is on Marioninja1's profile.
1. Prologue

Prologue

Kid

"So," I asked, "What, or who, should I say, are we looking for?"

"Easiest question all night." Xan responded, as we walked down a street of the run-down and crowded favela neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. "We're looking for an Afreet. It's what we do, you know."

"Stop with the smartness! I mean their names!"

"Why does it matter?"

"I like to know their names. I don't know why, but it makes me feel better about it if they seem more like their former human selves," I confided.

"...I know what you mean," Xan stated knowingly. "Their names are, were, Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker. You know, I enjoy the poeticism of these Afreets. One I fought before had drowned people for execution, and had turned into a fish-thing. These two were conjoined in death, and it appears, stay together in coming back. I hope to send them to their final peace together tonight."

"Well, you seem to be getting sentimental!" Patti cut in, in her pistol form.

"That's what I was about to say!" Said Shinobu, also in weapon form.

Xan

The girls had become quick friends since my feud with Kid had been settled a couple weeks ago. They'd taken to hanging out together, even so far that I often saw Shinobu for scarcely several hours a day sometimes.

It was the right thing that Shinigami-sama had done at the time, allowing Shinobu to attend DWMA, though I couldn't see it at the time. We'd gotten so much stronger in battle, and our friendship was also at its greatest. She was, at this point, the happiest she had been since I had met her.

"Xan, pay attention! You don't want to be surprised out in the field!" Kid scolded me.

"Sorry, but just because you have more souls than me doesn't mean that you get to order me around!"

"In case you forgot, your reckless behavior earlier made Father decide to send you on missions with a chaperon! That makes me your superior!"

"I had forgotten that!" I skulked.

Just then, we were attacked by a monster-no other word for it- that appeared to be two humans, only conjoined at the hip, with a single serpent's tail below the joint portion, and each had one of their arms joined to the other one's opposite arm.

It charged, and I threw one of my new Shinigami Instant-Freeze Grenades at it.

_Boom!_

Its' tail was frozen to the waist by the chemical spray from my explosive, leaving it unable to move any more that a crawl on its' two good arms. I used Shinobu's weaker resonance to finish the job by a knock to the head with what could be called a lightning-strength taser.

"Why didn't you attack it?"

"It was so symmetrical! How could you do that! Destroying something so beautiful!" He said in a rage.

"Kid! You don't look very hard sometimes! One head had no hair, the other had very short hair!" I explained.

"Are you sure?"

"Am I sure! I busted its' heads open myself!"

"Oh, well, good job!" He praised. It was weird hanging around with Kid.

"Okay. Being in Rio de Janeiro, I think we deserve to at least celebrate a little. But, since both the beach and the clubs would be too asymmetrical, let's have a cup of coffee at this cafe I know. I go to it every time I'm in town."

"How much do you get around, exactly?"

"More than you'll ever know!"

_At the Cafe_

We sat there, drinking coffee. We must have looked odd, five teenagers just drinking coffee, sitting in a way as to make the patio table symmetrical, Kid at the head of the table.

"So, where have you been?" He asked.

"Well, with Shinobu, I've been to Spain, France, oh, and Sardinia, that one was interesting! Let's see, Morocco, Algeria, that one sucked, The Gambia was, oh wait," I said at the dirty look I got from Shinobu, "I can't tell you _that_ story, and-"

I was cut short by a large explosion.

"What the hell?" I said, as more explosions followed.

Then we looked up at the television playing the news, reporting around twenty explosions and counting.

"We've got to go help these people!" I shouted.

"How? Your weapon can't put out fires!"

"My ice grenades can!"


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Xan

So, Kid and I spent all night putting out the fires from the explosions. We saved as many people as we could, which was quite a few. But I couldn't shake the familiarity of these blasts, but why?

When we got back to the hotel room, it must have been 4 a.m., but we weren't tired. Kid because ash had gotten onto his suit; me because of my worry for the explosions.

"Are you okay?" Shinobu asked. "This is the weirdest you've been since the first day you were back at DWMA."

"It's odd. I feel like I should understand something about the explosions, but I don't. It's like my mind is trying to get me to notice something." I answered, starting to panic on the inside. "How are you guys?" I asked Kid's team.

"Once Kid gets the ash off, we'll be okay." Liz answered, acting as Kid's mouth while he was preoccupied with "cleaning duty."

"Can you teach me how to make those ice-things?" Patti wondered.

"The grenades? Well, they may be dangerous in the hands of..." I led off, as I saw the look of disappointment in her eyes. Like someone else from my past. "Well, I'm almost out of the ice grenades, but for now, I can teach you to make smoking grenades of different colors, and even some that sparkle and bang," I proposed.

"Like fireworks and ninja escape smoke-balls?"

"Yes," I said kindly, "exactly."

"Yay! Teach me now!" She shouted enthusiastically.

"Okay, come here," I said, laying out the ingredients for what I called "Xan's Big-Bang" and the "Black Star Special Smoke Bombs."

Shinobu

As Xan started teaching Patti how to make the most harmless of his explosives, I began to realize how much Xan thought of Patti. Almost like a little sister, as well as a slightly-romantic tinge on Patti's part, though Xan didn't seem to notice. Xan seemed to see someone in Patti, who she would never be. But to Xan, Patti was a manifestation of this person, and he would not, could not, deny her request to learn to make these fireworks.

"Come here!" Liz said quietly, on the other side of the room from Xan and Patti. Kid was in the bathroom cleaning his suit.

"Do you want to know something you probably don't about Xan?" She whispered.

"Does Xan have something for Patti?" I asked, moving over to Liz.

"Well, when Xan first attended DWMA, he was preoccupied with Anna, and didn't notice Patti much. But something you have to know is that Patti has a thing for Xan. When Xan and Anna went missing, she was the first to notice!"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. She really likes him. If it weren't for Anna, she would have gone after him, no doubt."

It must have been around 7 a.m. now, and Kid came out of the bathroom with his clean suit.

We were all thirsty as heck, so it was no surprise when Xan and Kid offered to go get some drinks from the machine outside the hotel. Since Kid didn't want to get any single part of his suit wet, Xan took Patti and I with him, and left Liz and Kid to look after the room.

Xan

We were waiting for the elevator to open, when Patti had an idea.

"Why don't you run down the stairs as soon as the elevator starts moving downwards with us in it, and we'll see who gets to the lobby first!" She asked.

"Well, I don't think..." Dammit! That look again! "Which one?" I asked. There were two stairwells and two elevators, on either end of the corridor. It's symmetry was why we were booked here.

"The one on the other side, so the elevator has time to start moving." Patti answered, cheerfully.

"Okay," I said, as soon as the elevator doors opened.

As soon as the elevator doors shut with Shinobu and Patti inside, I took off running for the other side of the hotel's hallway. It was the eighth floor (another of Kid's choices), and I had a long race ahead of me.

Shinobu

As the elevator started moving downwards, Patti started to talk.

"Can I ask you something?" She wondered, completely serious, compared to her usual cloud-headedness.

"Is it about Xan?" I asked.

"How did you know?"

"When you asked him for that race, I was suspicious. It's funny that he doesn't catch on that easily to hints like that."

"Well, I was wondering...," she started nervously, "are you two..together?"

"Frankly, hell no," I answered. "He's more like a father figure, or an older brother. He saved me, and takes care of me."

"Would it be o-okay if I-I-I...," She was so nervous now that she couldn't even finish the most important question on her mind.

"Yes. In fact, it's more than okay, it's great! Xan spends so much time in Stein's lab that he's starting to look as pale as Kid!" I laughed, with Patti following.

"Thank you! I mean, I'll thank you somehow!" She said loudly as the elevator doors opened, and there stood Xan, in an exhausted state.

Xan

I made it to the lobby just as the elevator doors were starting to crack open.

"Hello!" Said Patti, who for some reason seemed more excited now than when we were upstairs. "You're fast! You beat the elevator, and on a rectangular staircase, too!"

"I'll admit," Shinobu said, "that that was pretty impressive. Eight stories! Never would have thought that it was possible."

"Excuse me!" A receptionist lady, who seemed to know English strangely well for being in Brazil, said, coming towards us. "You can't be in the elevator. We're shutting them down!"

"Why?" I asked quietly.

"Well, I'm not supposed to tell you," the lady said, our interests piqued, "but, and keep this quiet, a team of special DWMA soldiers has come to pick up some fugitives! They say it might be the bastards who bombed the city earlier!"

"What?"

"They went up a few minutes ago, as a matter-of-fact!"

Just then, we heard the sound of a lot of glass breaking.

Then, Liz and Kid ran to us from the _front door_!

"Wait? How did you get there?" I asked.

"We have a problem! We went to get down here to see what was taking so long, and walked out of the door into some Academy commandos, with Sid-sensei at their head! I ran with Liz and used Beelzebub to fly out of the window."

The receptionist gasped, followed by a thud as I knocked her out with a touch to her head with Soul Menace.

"And we got along so well," I said sarcastically. "Time to go then?"

"My thoughts exactly," he said as he ran out, me following. On the way out, I grabbed and English tabloid for tourists, with the headline:

**"MAD BOMBERS FOUND: DWMA STUDENTS?"**

**Exclusive!**

"Well, if this is exclusive, we need to track the editor and find his source!" I shouted as we ducked into an alley. "But first, you need to leave."

"What?" Kid, Liz, and Patti asked, surprised.

"I don't want you getting executed or exiled for this. I won't have that happen to my friends!"

"Xan just has your best interests at heart, guys. Shinigami-sama might let you off if Kid leaves, and-" Shinobu started.

"That goes for you, too," Xan cut in. "I won't put you in danger like when Kid brought me in the first time. I go alone."

"You can't be serious!" Yelled Kid and Shinobu. Liz was trying to comfort Patti, who seemed to be the most upset of them all.

Curious.

"You'll just keep me held back, anyways," I told Kid and Shinobu, trying to stay collected. "And Patti?"

"Y-Y-Yes?"

"Keep that present I gave you, and not the grenades." When I said that, Patti broke into tears.

With that, I departed, leaving the alley for an address book that would lead me to this tabloid's office, and the Editor, as well.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Xan

It took me a couple hours to find the newspaper's office, but you don't think about time when you're going to beat a man for information.

I walked into the building, and went to the top floor (it was a three-story building), where I was greeted by a receptionist.

"Habla Engles?" I asked, meaning "Can you speak English?"

"I do, but not much Spanish," she said. "Do you have an appointment with Mister Gustavo?"  
"No, but he'll want to speak to me. Tell him it's Xan." I had read in the paper that DWMA's investigators of the explosions had found the same chemicals in residual amounts that I had ordered through the Academy. The paper also said that through a supposedly anonymous source they had learned the name of the bomber, but couldn't reveal the name of the bomber.

She went into the editor, Mr. Gustavo's office, presumably to tell my name to him, but it took way too damn long, so I knew something was up. I moved towards the office door, stepped back, and put my foot_ straight through _the door! It was so bad a door that my kick had put up to my shin on the other side, without opening the door!

"Shit!" I muttered as I tried to save face by slamming the rest of my weight at the door. I crashed, cartoon-style, through the door, still not opening it. As I got up from the floor, seeing the look of fright and surprise on the secretary and the editor's faces, I said:

"Well, good locks and hinges, those."

And then I noticed the editor's hand on the telephone, with the call-number displayed 190 (the Brazilian emergency number).

"The fuck you'll do that!" I shouted, pushing the hang-up button on the phone. "They call back if you hang up. If you answer," I threatened, "I'll slit your damn throat! Mister Gustavo is busy until I get done here!"

"Yes, Sir," she said, resigned to the situation.

"What the hell do you want?" Gustavo asked, in perfect freakin' English.

"Well that helps some," I said, holding him back by his shoulders, "I thought that I might have had to get your secretary to translate."

"You didn't answer me!" he yelled, not fully understanding his predicament.

"Okay! Business time!" I said, slamming him against the wall with each sentence. "You printed a story about the bomber this morning, so, as an introduction, I'm Xan. You said that you had a source who told you who the bomber was."

"Why do you-" It was then that he realized what was going on. "I won't tell you! Ever!"

"I'm sorry, but, with the Academy chasing me, that option isn't possible for you! So, I'll ask once more without violence, who told you my name for the bombing?"

"I'm still not telling you! You killed a lot of people!"

"That wasn't me! Your contact is a liar!"

"Why the hell should I believe you?" Gustavo said, making a very serious mistake.

_Five minutes later_

"...He's..in..Moscow," the freshly-beaten, bruised, and nearly-thrown-out-a-window editor said.

"Good, you learned," a tired-out me said. "A lesser man would have perished by now, and I've grown to admire your sheer toughness, but I have to g-" Then I heard sirens.

"Oh, damn it, bitch!" I yelled at the secretary. "At least tell me so I can get a head start!"

Kid

After Xan left, I said to Liz and Patti:

"Okay, I for one propose that we turn ourselves in."

"What?" Liz said, shocked.

"Why?" Patti said, in a similar state, and still teary-eyed from earlier.

"Well, if we turn ourselves in, we can tell Father what really happened, and help Xan and ourselves at the same time."

At the mention of helping Xan, Patti instantly agreed, saying:

"That sounds good to me!"

Liz took a few seconds longer, but, in the end, put up an "Okay, then."

"Okay, so, to get the Academy commandos here, we'll need a flare or something."

"Oh, I know! We'll use the sparkle-bomb Xan helped me make!" Patti said eagerly.

"That sounds like a...fine idea, Patti," I responded.

Xan

I ran to the fire escape on the other side of the building from the police, when they started delivering the "We have the building surrounded" speech, and knew that it was a lie. As I started dodging across rooftops, I pulled out my portable phone (not the Academy one; I had discarded that at the hotel) and called in a favor from an old acquaintance.

"Hello?"

"It's Xan, I need to call in that favor you owe me, and then some."

"This isn't quite the best time, Xan."

"What are you doing, watching over baby Walruses? Walrusi?"

"Shut up! It's not my fault that I was posted here!" The emotionally-hurt Death Scythe of Antarctica said.

"Okay, either ways, I need a pickup!"

"Well, you do owe me for the whole 'reindeer ordeal,' he said, in a shameful tone of the memory

"You're damn right about that!"

"Okay. Where are you?"

"Rio de Janeiro."

"Why the hell didn't you say so? I'll be there as soon as possible!"

Well, that's taken care of, I thought. Now, time to get these police off my back.

With that, I jumped off of a two story building, out of sight of police, into an alley. While they kept looking through buildings, I would change my outfit and walk casually on street-level!

Almost with tears in my eyes, I discarded my poncho and tuxedo, placing my explosives inside of my new clothes from inside my old jacket: Jeans, with an unusually bulky tropical shirt, unbuttoned, over a normal tan cotton t-shirt. I changed my Army boots for cowboy boots, complete with spurs, and knives hidden in the front, for extra weaponry, and put on a Greek fisherman's hat.

When I had changed clothes, I looked longingly at my poncho. "Aw, screw it," I said, took out a pair of scissors, and re-cut and sewed the poncho into an Andes Incan-style jacket with a hood. "I just couldn't leave you behind, old friend," I muttered to my new jacket.

With that done, I headed down to the docks to wait for my ride.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Xan

When the boat arrived, like always I was amazed by the sheer awesomeness of it. Painted to look like a boat-shaped block of ice, it was one of those speedboats with an enclosed cabin. Its' four internal engines ensured it to get it to Russia in only slightly less time than a commercial flight, no wait or tickets needed.

"Yo!" Greeted Pryce Omar, Death Scythe of Antarctica. "So, where we headed? Someplace warm?"

"Well, not exactly," I said with a smile, still on the docks. "Permission to come aboard?"

"Yes...," he said, deflated. "Our heading?"

"North-Northeast."

"Oh damn! England, then?" He said, confused.

"No, but a little farther. To Russia."

"Why? I've been confined to cold for so long! Why can't I go somewhere warm?"

"Wake up, Pryce! I can drive the boat for a while, and, while we're on the equator, why don't you take a small vacation."

"Really?" He wondered, relieved. "Would you do that for me?"

"Why not? We just have to leave right now!"

With that, I started the climb up to the ship's wheel. However, the instant I reached the controls, a familiar voice startled me.

"Where do you think you're going without me?" Shinobu asked, starting to board the boat.

"Whoa, miss," Pryce started to say, "but you can't-"

"Let her on," I said, resolved. "If she won't leave, she can come."  
"You're so casual about it!" She yelled. "Do you-" And immediately stopped at the signal I made about Pryce to her.

"Well, lover's quarrels otherwise, I think it's time we left port."

_At sea, 10.1North, 3.2 West_

"So," Shinobu whispered, while Pryce was sleeping in the sun, "he doesn't know anything about our running from the DWMA?"

"Why would he? He can't pick up signals in the Antarctic, so he has no direct communication with Shinigami-sama, let alone the Academy. As far as he knows, I'm just traveling for a while," I explained.

"Wait, so he doesn't even know you left the Academy before?"

"Hell, I met him before Anna. He probably thinks that you've been my partner from the start."

"Wow. He must be a master of combat to be by himself with no backup at the South Pole."

"Actually," I whispered extra quietly, "he's just the least capable. Other than this boat, he's got nothin'."

Shinobu fought to hold back a laugh, as we drove on.

"Do you think that they'll beat us there?"

"Of course. But they don't have the resources that I have."

"Like what?" She asked flatly.

"Well, there's you, and the fact that I called a meeting in one of the fanciest hotels in Moscow with the informant using the editor's name helps, too."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Xan:

Saint-Petersburg, Russia

"See you later!" Pryce Omar said happily as we stepped off of his boat. "Thanks for giving me the chance to get a small rest in warm weather!"

"You're welcome!" Shinobu said, smiling.

"Thank you for the ride," I followed. "Don't forget to keep the polar bears and the reindeer separated!"

"It was once! Just by chance you were there when it happened!" Pryce responded angrily.

"Sure. See ya!"

_On the train to Moscow_

"Where are we going?" Shinobu asked me.

"The Kempinski Hotel," I answered. "It's luxurious, public, and roomy enough for maneuvering in a fight."

"Why would you want to be in a public space?"

"Russia is infested, like so many cockroaches, with mafia. In public spaces, we cannot be ambushed so easily. By the way, before the meeting, and especially during, do not turn into a weapon. The more advantages we get the better."

"Can we get souvenirs beforehand?"

"Of course. I doubt that we'll be able to afterwards, and besides, I never pass up vodka from Russia."

_Moscow, Kempinski Hotel, Cafe Kranzler_

Waiting for our contact, sipping coffee next to Shinobu, I thought of what had happened so far in Russia.

We had spent the entire last night shopping, once we arrived on the train at about 7 at night. First, we had gone to a clothes store and bought better clothes. Though I had insisted on keeping my jacket made from my poncho, over it I now wore a military surplus overcoat, with military boots. I had kept the jeans, but had traded the tropical shirt for a t-shirt covered with Cyrillic script. Shinobu had traded her old clothes for jeans and a plain white shirt, covered with some expensive designer-brand red trench coat. How could I afford these? Well, let's say that Kid's credit card was linked to Shinigami-sama's funds. Sure, it could be tracked, but we'd be out of the city before anyone noticed.

Then, we'd gone to the specialty shops. I treated myself to buying a couple bottles of Russian vodka, along with some 151-proof rum (not for drinking, of course. It is good to use for my Immolation-Flame Bombs). I also bought one of those wooden dolls that have smaller dolls inside them.

Shinobu got a snow globe with a model of Red Square inside, and a poster of the Russian alphabet.

Man, I thought, Shinigami-sama will freak out when he looks at this bill.

Back at the present time, a man walked into the cafe. He sat down in front of us. Our contact.

He was sinister looking, at best, with a shaved head and a leather jacket, with scars across his face.

"Why did your boss contact me?" He asked. "I told you everything I know about that bomber! I could have you shot for meeting me again!"

"I was just wondering who told you this? A man in Russia doesn't know about a bomber in Brazil an hour or two after the event happens. For sure not in the early hours of the morning!"

"The agreement was that I was to remain anonymous! I cannot tell you."

With that, and seeing Shinobu's hands in her lap, I said "I really think you should, because, right now, my partner has a gun trained on you under the table."

For a moment, the guy looked scared, then confident. "You're lying! She looks too surprised by what you said!"

To cover, I said "No, it's a gun," and patted Shinobu's shoulder, meanwhile matching wavelengths, sending a bolt of electricity into the guy's leg.

"Ah!" He yelled, but muffled himself.

"It just happens to be a stun-gun!" I finished.

"You bastard!" The man yelled, reaching for a weapon in his jacket. This meeting was declining fast!

"Shinobu!" I called. She transformed into a kanabo, surging with electricity.

"Who told you the name of the bomber?" I asked, sending a small shock his way. However, the electricity hit his firearm, causing it to misfire into his leg. People in the cafe were starting to panic now, and I needed to leave.

"His name's Ng Li, an expert in experimental explosives! He's in Atlantic City now!"

"Shit! Freakin' Li! I can't get away from the guy!"

"Who's that?" Shinobu spoke up, changing back to human form.

"I'll tell you once we get the hell out of here!" I said, running out of the hotel and through the streets. When we were ten blocks away, I stopped, allowing Shinobu to get an answer to her question.

"You see, I didn't make these grenades and explosives myself. A long time ago, I was Doctor Li's...lackey, I guess. I helped him experiment with his explosives. We blew up some things: dummies, cars, houses. We even hit banks for funds. But when I got fed up with his style, he kind of got pissed when I went to leave. That's why I have this," I said, pulling up my sleeve to expose my scar, which was a burned on symbol of Li's which was his name over a diagram of a hydrogen atom.

"Dr. Manhattan?"

"Shut up! That's not funny! Anyways, I doubt he'd go to these lengths to get back at me. I'm sure he's working for someone. It appears that we'll have to confront him in New Jersey. A plane flight now will be risky, but the benefits surpass them."

"Where will we find him?"

"No doubt the closest roulette wheel. He was a gambling addict, at least when I knew him."

"Oh, great. Our goal is to find a gambling house in Atlantic City, New Jersey," Shinobu said sarcastically. "That makes it easy."


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5  
Shinobu

After we flew to Atlantic City (not an easy feat. Xan had to promise to leave the card with the receptionist as a bribe to put another name and card ID number for the ticket), it took days to get anywhere on our search for Dr. Li. Here and there we found mention of him from the various casino employees, but it seemed like we were one step behind him always.

Meanwhile, we were living like we had when I first met Xan. In alcoves inside alleys, in gutted and empty factories. It was tough coming back to this after getting used to sleeping on the cots inside Xan's concrete shack. We again knew no beds, and, other than each other, we knew no friends but the roaches.

Then, one week exactly into our search in New Jersey, we decided to check out a place called '6's and 7's.' It was a fancy place, a kind of resort for gamblers, and Xan explained "Li has a thing for upscale places like this. You see, it doesn't look suspicious for a big rich man to have bodyguards, and, trust me, Li will have them. You should be ready for battle, because, if he's there, there'll be one."

Xan

We walked into the casino and sat at the bar, when one of the many bartenders came up to me threateningly as well as politely.

"Aren't you two a little young to be here, Sir and Miss, especially at the bar?" He asked.

"We aren't too young to be here," I said, waving my hand slowly in front of me. "In fact, we deserve a drink on the house."

"Are you supposed to be a Jedi or something?" The bartender asked contemptuously.

"Sorry, Sir," Shinobu came on flirtingly (_that_ annoyed me), "we'll leave, but we were just wondering if you've seen a doctor, named Li."

"Well, Miss," he answered over-courteously, "he was in here about an hour or two ago." This was a lucky find, indeed!

"Did he say where he was going?" Shinobu asked eagerly.

"Well, he did say something about a meeting with his friends, but not where."

"Thank you, Sir!" Shinobu said, a little too excitedly, and, to his and my shock, embraced the bar-man across the counter. "Let's go, Xan!"

When we were nearer the gambling machines, I questioned her.

"What was with the hug?" I asked in a light tone.

"I just felt that the risk to the man for talking to us deserved a little prize." She answered.

It was then that I saw Riley and Kylie, arguing about something.

"Shit!" I cursed quietly.

"What?" Shinobu asked.

"Be quiet and come this way," I said, walking quickly behind the vending machines. As I turned the corner, I heard Riley:

"Xan! We're here to arrest you!" He yelled.

Well, you've failed if you wanted to quietly, I thought.

"Shinobu, transform!" I said.

"Sure!" She answered.

As I prepared Shinobu to be swung at the next Meister to come around the slot machines, I heard Riley and Kylie arguing about what Shinobu's weapon form was. Then, another Meister, this one with a pirate sword, rounded the machines.

"Luc!" Riley shouted as I swung Shinobu. But the kid was too quick for a heavy weapon's strike. He ducked back, and I smashed the slot machine's side so badly that it started projectile-shooting change everywhere. This opponent of mine, Luc, followed up that dodge with a flip kick to my face, and as I staggered back, he grabbed a handful of gold dollars.

However, while I staggered back and Luc got greedy, I threw a lit grenade (one of my basic "Big X Boomers") at Riley, who was standing on a poker table. As it exploded and sent him crashing into the ceiling, I yelled "Don't cheat at my fights," though I doubt he heard.

When he hit the ground, though, he was bleeding from his head and _laughing_. "Damn," I said, surprised, "never have I seen that before." He should have been dead, after all!

"Tell me about it." Shinobu added.

Meanwhile, the kid Luc and his partner were arguing in a similar fashion to Riley was with Kylie.

"Not that crap again! She's a freaking Kanabo. A medieval Japanese club!" I interrupted.

"Yeah, that's what a criminal would try to make us believe!" Luc said ignorantly.

"I didn't do it! I'm searching for the real culprit, the Doctor!"

"Huh?"

"If you keep using 'huh' as a question, I'll rip your throat out!"

"Anyways, the Doctor? I don't think a Time Lord would blow up half of Brazil!"

"Aw, screw it," I said. "Partial soul resonance!" I announced, and tapped his leg with Shinobu.

"What was that-" he started to say as the current reached him in full force. He muttered something, then passed out.

"Glad he's unconscious," I said, while Shinobu returned to human form.

I turned to Kylie, who had changed back to human form and was taking care of Riley, who seemed to be having hallucinations, and was singing.

"Kylie, please believe me. It was not me who caused those explosions. It was Doctor Li, my mentor in explosives," I explained.

"Rye believed you, so I guess I will, too," she replied.

"Okay. Then we'll need to get your brother and eye-patch out of here before the Academy can send retrieval squads," I said, and turned to Eye-Patch. "How did he get that, anyway? It's fresh-no light circle around it from prolonged wearing and shifting."

"He lost his eye and scarred his hand from an encounter with the mob while we were looking for you," Luc's partner said grudgingly.

"Oh, fine then," I said, feeling absolutely no guilt from this happening, "Let's go."

"I knew you didn't have a heart, even if you didn't bomb that city." Kylie muttered.

"Sure don't!" I called cheerfully. "Police inbound! Time to go!"

"How could you be so heartless?" Riley sang, still delusional. I stopped listening when he got to talking about Kingdom Hearts.

"Oh, jeez," Luc's partner exclaimed.

"Kylie, lead him! Girl, I'll carry Luc on the left, so he doesn't know it's me."


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Shinobu

We were inside of a closed warehouse in downtown Atlantic City. Xan was gone, checking out another casino, while Kylie, Luc, his partner Eva, and I were attempting to wake Riley from the semi-delusional and unconscious state he was in.

"What should we do to wake him up?" I wondered.

"Maka is flat-chested! You're ugly! Ireland sucks!" Luc yelled out of nowhere.

"What are you doing?" Kylie asked.

"I figure, if he's angry enough, he'll wake up. I did Maka and she liked it!"

Xan

I was excited. I had a lead on Li! As I opened the back door to the large storage building that we were temporarily staying in, however, I lost track of my thoughts, as I heard a curious outburst.

"I did Kylie and she liked it!" Someone shouted, and was silenced by what sounded like a kick.

As I walked in, I saw Kylie standing next to a freshly-injured Luc.

"You forgot that she was standing there, didn't you?" Luc's partner asked.

"She was on my blind side," Luc complained. "Give me a break!"

"Could you hurry and wake him," I spoke up. "We need to leave!"

"Screw you! You blew him up!"

"Actually," Shinobu pointed out, "you attacked first. A counter-strike is fair."

"You've already cost me an eye! If Riley doesn't get better, I'll kill you," Luc threatened.

"You can try," I threatened back.

"That said," Luc's partner interrupted, "we're on your side."

"For now, okay, but I'll be watching him," I said, indicating Luke.

"Now that that's sorted out-" Kylie started, but was stopped by Riley sitting from his cot.

When he saw me, all he said was "We're with you now?" Then he smiled and said, "Cool."

"So, what do we do now?" Luc asked.

"Well, this poker dealer, for all the chips I won, said that Doctor Li was in there saying that he had a meeting in New Orleans, so I vote that we go there, beat some thugs, and find out how to get ourselves into this meeting of the Doctor and whoever else it is," I explained.

"And, while we're at it, we can party!" A still-not-completely alright Riley said loudly.


	8. Recollections

Recollections

Xan

"Who are you?" The scared girl asked. She was about my age, maybe a year or two under, with dark hair, almost black, with a dark red tint.

"A gentlemanly-warrior that just saved your life," I answered. "If anything, I think that you owe me _your _name, Miss..."

"Shinobu," She answered. "What sort of crazy thing did you do to these guys?" She wondered, indicating the two unconscious would-be assailants.

"It's a move called Soul Menace, usable by Demon Weapon users," I explained. "I manipulate my Soul Wavelength into my attacks, increasing their efficiency exponentially. It's kind of-"

"So you're a Meister, huh?" Shinobu interrupted. "Where's your weapon?"

"Well, I didn't really study at the Academy, so I don't have any partner," I lied. "That Soul Menace was taught to me by an acquaintance of mine, who is a Death Scythe."

**X Note:**** The Death Scythe thing is not a lie. It's when Xan met Pryce Omar, Death Scythe of Antarctica, during the "reindeer incident."**

"Sure. I'll pretend that a random homeless _boy_ didn't just teach himself this in an alley from things that he had heard about." That hurt.

"So, anyways, what's a nice American girl doing in a bad neighborhood in Prague?"

"My...father works here, as a museum curator," she said courageously.

"No offense, that was a nice lie, but your clothes are way too raggedy to have merely left your home for a stroll, and besides, you asked me 'Who are you?' in English; anyone who's family was here for an extended stay would have spoken to a stranger in Czech, or at least some Russian. So, Miss Shinobu, where's your family?"

She started to panic, no doubt at my deduction, and was probably contemplating running away, so I said:

"Notice, I don't want to hurt you. I'm just curious as to what you're doing by yourself? Surely, you could send a message to some far-off relatives, or seek refuge in a shelter, or at least with some other shelterly-challenged person?"

"No," she said sadly, and started to cry.

"Oh," I said, sitting in the alley between her and the unconscious men. "Well, then, you seem to have four options: go to a shelter, wander the streets, go to the police and get them to contact your relatives, or-"

"No, not the police! They got me here in the first place!"

"What, how?"

"They are on the payroll of the man who murdered my father! A man with a special sword. Not even a gun! I don't know what his name is, but I know what he looks like, and I've vowed to get revenge on him!"

"How do you propose to do that, when you're homeless and with no resources?"

"I'm a Demon Weapon! I'll get a partner, or, better yet, teach myself to fight solo! That murderer won't know what's coming!" She stated triumphantly.

"Well, you've impressed me," I said. "And you're in luck. Revenge is my specialty, if you'll help me get even as well."

"What? Were you're parents killed by this man?"

"No, someone very special to me. A girl. But that's not important. The killer is migratory. If you come with me, I can promise you vast travel, and no shortage of danger. We'll be hunting a witch."

"That's fine to me," She said. "But you won't stop if you get your retribution first, right?"

"Miss," I said as I stood up, "I can promise you this with absolute certainty: we will both find and kill who we are searching for. Deal?" And I reached out my hand.

"Deal," she said, and took my hand.


	9. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Xan

As we left the riverboat at New Orleans, I said, jokingly, "The New Orleans docks. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

"That wasn't exactly the most sly joke to say here," Shinobu pointed out. "This place creeps me out, and the fact that it's night-time doesn't help."

"Well, assuming Li's here, we'll have to talk to said thugs. We just need to hear the mention of Doctor Li."

"I always like New Orleans. I mean, where else can I speak French?" Luc asked.

"There's France," Riley said.

"I live in France, Riley."

We didn't hear any mention of Li on the docks, but as we passed a back alley, we heard three men arguing.

"I told you it was red!" One shouted.

"I thought it was blue!" Yelled another, that I'll call two.

"No, it was green!" Called a third.

"It really was red," Four said calmly.

"You won't get in to see Doctor Li if you're not wearing red!" One shouted again.

When I heard that, I strolled into this back alley, with Luc and Riley as back-up. Shinobu, Eva, and Kylie weren't in weapon form.

"Wait, to meet Doctor Ng Li, you need to be wearing red? Like you two?" I pointed to One and Four.

"Yeah! That's what I've been trying to tell these two!" One said loudly.

"I forgot, where is it, again?" I asked slyly.

"In that old factory South of the Greater New Orleans Bridge."

"Okay!" I said, and leapt forward, using Soul Menace on One and Three. I turned around to see Luc take out Two, and Riley punch the hell out of Four.

"Sweet! Let's use these coats to meet Dr. Li, like James Bond." Luc said triumphantly.

"Wait, we're using these to meet Li? I just wanted this guy's outfit. He's got a coat and hat like Alucard from Hellsing!" Riley Exclaimed.

"Well, anyway," I said as I saw Kylie pinch the bridge of her nose, "which of you are going to go to the meeting with me? There's only two red coats, and one's mine. The other one of you will have to stay outside and keep anyone from leaving once the fun begins."

"There's no way I'm letting Luc have this coat!" Riley said.

"So it's settled. Luc will stay outside and stop Li from fleeing, while Riley and I get the party started."

"If that's the way you want to put it, I guess," I heard Shinobu mutter.

"Dude, you look like Vash the Stampede," Riley whispered as we approached the factory. We had left Luc and Eva at the main road nearby, to stop those that tried escaping after we had started our "party."

The glasses and stuck-up hair don't help, I thought.

"Quiet, I don't want Li noticing us more than he might," I scolded. "I thought that the glasses might help hide my face."

We neared the doors, and were allowed through by the guards hidden behind the door frame. I suppose that they would stop those not in bright red coats.

Inside, in the large main factory room, there was a huge table, sitting about fifty other people. All showing threatening looks and plenty of guns. It was good that they didn't care about weapons, because Shinobu was strapped to my back, and Kylie was on Riley's.

There he was! It was Li!, I thought. I pointed him out to Riley, but there was something wrong. He wasn't at the head of the table! So he wasn't really the gang-leader! So who was?

We took our seats near the only exit as the meeting started.

"It's time we got this started!" The introductory man said. He had to speak loud to assure that everyone could hear. "We are here to discuss a way to take down Death's Academy, and how to split the loot! But don't listen to me! Listen to the man that brought us all together. I present to you, the new King of the Underworld, Flixith Durendal!"

As he said this, a stern-looking man entered the hall, and began walking the length of the table to the speaker's area at the head. He wore expensive clothes, I'm sure, based off of his boots, but everything else was hidden behind a long red jacket, with matching gloves. Curiously, for this hiding outfit, he had a shining silver chain around his neck, and his hood was down. He had a scar running from his right ear to his chin, and had manically dark eyes, with shoulder-length brown hair.

"Xan! It's him!" Shinobu whispered quietly.

"Him him?" I asked. "You sure?"

"Absolutely, I would never forget _his_ face!"

Well, this has got much more complicated, I thought.

"Ever since our last overall leader Al Capone was murdered while attempting to kill a witch," he started at the head of the table, "we've been scurrying for cover like rats against the forces of Death's Academy. Well, I say 'No More!' Death cannot even leave his city in Nevada, and sends _kids_, magical weapons or not, to keep us in hiding. No more! With me and you working together, we can attack and destroy the Academy, and recruit those magic weapons for our own forces!"

At this shocking and rallying speech, most of those present started cheering loudly. To go along with this, me and Riley merely clapped, as did a few others, such as Li and his bodyguards.

"What do you expect to do?" Li interrupted. "Their weapons can stand up to anything we have! Guns cannot accomplish what these Demon Weapons can!"

This indignant tone seemed to only annoy Durendal.

"You see, they're not the only ones using these. You see-" He said, and pulled from the inside of his coat a wicked-looking black-bladed sword from his coat, "they're not quite the only ones with magical weapons. Me and twelve of my men have Demon Weapons, and are quite skilled with them. You don't get to the top through nothing!"

With that, a sinister man in a three-piece suit came halfway through the blade.

"We'll show Death who's boss!"

"Well, then," Doctor Li said. "if you think that you can stand up to Death Academy students, fight those two," he said, and pointed straight at us.


	10. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Xan

"If you think that you can stand up to Death Academy students," Doctor Li said, "fight those two," and pointed directly at Riley and I.

"What?" Flixith Durendal asked, anger growing. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. As a matter of fact, the one on the left used to be one of my students, who betrayed me to attend the Academy."

At this point, the doors were blocked by four guards, and everyone had their hands on their various firearms, so Riley and I decided to ourselves that it was time to stand up and take the standard "We're-screwed-so-go-back-to-back-and-kill-as-many-as-possible" position, and got ready to fight.

"Li!" I yelled. "As a final warning, you should be aware that, once I kill all of these gun-toting bitches, you're next! Then it's that Durendal guy and his fancy sword!"

As they pulled their guns on us, I shouted to Riley "Don't move!" and activated Oni Resonance. A field of blue-white lightning surrounded us, and the bullets stopped in mid-flight. The idiots were stunned when, instead of shredding us to bits, their bullets were floating in mid-air, like so many black metallic bees.

"Riley! You know why I prefer fighting real guns instead of Demon Guns like Kid's?"

"D'you wanna talk about how you fight right now?" Riley responded.

Ignoring him, I yelled, "It's because the metal bullets are magnetic! Return to sender!" And switched the electrical charge of the lightning.

The bullets were shot back to their senders, and all that they could do about it was watch and die.

The only people left alive in the building besides me and Riley were the ones who hadn't fired a shot: Doctor Li and Durendal, of course, along with their body guards and the door guards.

"Well, aren't you a smart one!" Durendal praised. "Skilled, too. Li, couldn't you have given warning to the men?" That was sarcastic.

"I never said that he was a bad student," Li countered. "I couldn't judge what he could do just from the time I knew him."

"If you're gonna keep taking, I'm just gonna walk out the door." Riley interrupted.

"Why should I fight you myself, when I have these guard-" Durendal started, and was pointing to the spot that _used_ to have the door guards. "It's just too hard to find good help these days, I guess. Li! Use your guards," he ordered.

"Go, then," Li, in turn, ordered his guards.

As they approached, all six of Li's guards pulled out two short swords apiece, each with three-foot long blades.

"Li, you should know by now not to use metal weapons," I said.

"I think you should look closer, _Mister_ Dariano," Li taunted, using my last name.

I did, and saw that the short swords were, indeed, not metal. That sucked.

"You see, I've created a material harder than diamond, more sharp than obsidian, and can dodge any metal detector or x-ray scan out there!"  
"You always were a tricky one, Li, but I'll show you that new technologies aren't always better! I won't even use my electricity!"

"Actually, I won't be here! Me and Durendal, along with our soldiers outside are going straight to Death City!"

"How?"

"It's simple. We have a train. We put soldiers on the train. We take said train to Death City, Nevada. I thought you were supposed to be smart!"

"I feel left out, not knowing anyone here," Riley muttered, still back-to-back with me.

"You're tellin' me," Shinobu agreed. "Xan! Kill these men so we can get to Durendal!"

"Okay, Miss violent!" I yelled, and ran at the three guards on my side.

One swung high at me, and I brought Shinobu up, knocking the blade from his second hand that he had tried to block me with, and shattering his jaw with Shinobu's steel and wooden kanabo form, while the Doctor and Durendal left out of a back fire exit.

"Let's get this over quick, Riley!"

"No, Xan, I'm _trying_ to be slow!" Riley answered, and sliced one of the men across his chest, sending him to the ground.

Another guard stabbed at me, but I dodged left, and caught his arm between my body and my arm. Before he could cut at me with the other blade, I sent a bolt of electricity through his nervous system, sending him into a temporary vegetative state.

The third guard was more defensive. I couldn't attack and send a bolt of electricity through his blades-they weren't conductive-so I leapt back and lit one of my explosives with my electricity.

I through it, and it exploded into a cloud of purple mist.

"How do you like my 'purple haze knockout gas,' bitch!" I yelled.

The mist cleared out, and he was out like Sonny Liston. I looked over at Riley, who, just then, knocked out his last opponent with Kylie's pommel.

"Let's go!" He shouted, and we had ran through the door Li and Durendal had went through, when we were immediately ambushed on by a soldier left behind. I stabbed at Riley, who had dodged at the last second, but still suffered a small slash to the right forearm. He cried out in surprise, but still managed to almost cut the would-be assassin in two with a mighty chop from Kylie.

"You okay?" I asked.

"I'll be fine. I'm Irish, remember?" He answered, and we saw someone else running towards us.

"Eva?" I wondered, seeing that it was her. "What are you doing here?"

"I heard Riley yell, and I wanted to help...," she said. "Luc's probably been captured by Stein. He's not following me yet, but-"

"Don't think I'm stupid! He got captured because you ran off, didn't he? Otherwise, why aren't you in custody as well?" I shouted at her.

"You left Luc, the most inexperienced one of us, alone, to fight Dr. Stein, who's basically Chuck Norris?" Kylie asked.

"I didn't mean to..." Eva trailed off.

"Well, I guess that we might as well take the traitorous bitch with us. She can't get in the way _that_ much, I'm sure," I resolved. "We need to go now, though. Li and Durendal have a huge head start."


	11. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Xan

"We need to go now, though. Li and Durendal have a huge head start," I said to Riley, and saw Li running away on foot to the North, and Durendal walking calmly towards a car to the South.

"Get Li!" I yelled to Riley, and we ran our separate ways. I started running towards Durendal, who was about to his car, when his guards spotted me, but were smart enough not to open fire. I was about fifty yards away.

"Why aren't you going after Li?" Shinobu asked. "I figured that you wanted revenge on him."

"No, it is not he that I'm after," I replied. "But this man is the one that you want to kill, is he not? He killed your father, and made you live on the streets! I made a promise to you, on the day we met, that if I met this man, he would find himself dead beyond a doubt! I fulfill my promises, and your doubts cannot make me not! To be fare, though, when he cannot run, I'll ask you fairly if you want him dead or not, even if he's a little worse for wear!"

When we got within, the twenty-five yards away, Durendal reached the car. By the time they started driving, I was within fifteen. They hit the gas, speeding away. But I had an idea to slow them down.

"Shinobu! Stick with me through this! It'll get tough, but the result will justify our efforts!"

With that, I threw a chain with an iron hook attacked at the car, jumped onto Shinobu's weapon form that was on the ground, and activated Oni Resonance. The lightning field kept us above the ground, while the hooked chain on the car pulled us moving. It would be a simple act to wind in the chain, while using the electricity to stop any projectiles coming at me.

_Five minutes down the road_

I must have looked odd, trailing a car from a chain, riding on a baseball bat-looking thing, but as the chain dwindled to ten feet between me and the car, the men inside were getting more and more restless. If it weren't for my demonstration earlier, they would have shot at me. But they wanted it the hard way. We were getting to within a few miles of the train yard, where Durendal had possibly tens, if not a hundred soldiers, along with Li's. It was time to act.

I leapt into the air, detached the chain from my arm, pulled Shinobu up, and with all of my might, smashed the roof of the fancy car Durendal was inside. I leapt off of the car's crushed roof, and hung onto a street lamp. I watched as the car sped up uncontrollably, and crashed into the railroad's Departures Office.

"Well, that sucks," Shinobu said.

"And yet it felt so good," I finished.

I dropped from the lamp and watched as the railroad workers got the living out of the car. Crap! Both Durendal and one of his guards were alive, but I wasn't close enough to see if I'd injured them and to what extent.

"Guess I'll have to outdo myself in the 'mayhem' category to kill this guy."

"Shouldn't you call Riley?" Shinobu asked.

"Sure, why not?" I replied, and went to a nearby pay-phone. I didn't know, Riley's number, but I had memorized Luc's, and I knew that Eva had his (you have no idea how much you can screw with someone who's telephone number you have).

"It's Xan. I need to talk to Riley," I said casually.

"Yeah?" Riley answered.

"They're getting on the train. Go to the station. I'll be waiting," I said, and hung up.

"So what do you want to do while we're waiting for them?" Shinobu asked.

"I have someone else to talk to." I walked up to a closed glass store front and breathed onto the window, making a fog.


	12. Chapter 10

_At the train station_

Xan

We were hidden behind luggage of normal passengers, and saw the three cars that must have been our targets near the rear of the train: One with men bristling with guns, one in the middle armored all over, one with Li's "Experimental Soldiers:" some half-man half-machine, some half-man half-Afreet, some just deformed humans.

"I can see why you left the freak," Kylie, in human form, said. "Human experimentation! Who'd have thought?"

"He just started with the first group when I defected. The Academy stopped that one, but it appears as if he just started again," I said.

"So, what do we do?" Riley asked.

"Well, I say that you, Kylie, and Eva take Li's freaks, and I'll take Durendal's. Li's experiments aren't as dangerous as they appear," I said when I saw the look of protest on Eva's and Kylie's face. "They're probably only going to be useful to spread Shinigami-sama's forces out through terrorizing the citizens of Death City."

"Shouldn't we stay together?" Eva interrupted. "It'd be more safe."

"No," I answered. "We don't want to all attack one car and alert two others. Better to take down two cars and alert the third that has less warriors."

"Won't they just lock up that armored car when they hear their guys dying?" Shinobu asked.

"Yes, but I have an idea. We'll meet up on _top_ of the armored car, since it's in the middle of the other two. I'll use my bombs to blast through."

"And if you can't?" Riley wondered.

"Supposing I can't, they'll have to leave sometime, anyways. Especially when we get to Death City."

The train engine's whistle blew, and it started moving forwards slowly.

"Let's go!" I yelled, and we ran and jumped onto the rear car, the only one behind the car with Durendal's men inside.

"If I were you, I would burst into the car from the top," I whispered to Riley as we stood on the back of the car, Riley with a claymore and a cutlass at his sides, I with Shinobu in my left hand.

"Did you think I was going to walk in and curtsy?" He answered, climbed onto the top of the car, and began his journey to fight Li's soldiers.

As I waited to hear the sound of Riley's assault, I readied Shinobu like a baseball bat.

"Are you ready for your final revenge?" I asked.

"I think so," she answered. "I'm just a little nervous."

"Don't worry. Revenge is much more fulfilling than you could ever hope for, usually."

"Usually?"

"Well, occasionally, if it's someone that you know well, you may come to regret it, but that's not something that we have to worry about."

Then, we heard a commotion towards the front of the car.'

"Time to go," I remarked, and swung Shinobu at the rear door of the caboose.

I walked through the caboose, which had boxes of extra weapons and other supplies for the soldiers. When I reached the other door, I made my grand entrance.

I ran and swung Shinobu, smashing the door, but at the same time activated Oni Resonance. When I burst in on Durendal's men, I shocked the first ten or so near the rear door, leaving about fifty others.

"Only sixty?" I taunted as all of the men, shocked, turned and looked at me. "With Li's, that's only like one-hundred! You guys are ambitious!"

I would have gotten a face-full of bullets right there, if I didn't have Shinobu's field. I did the old return-to-sender trick on the bullets, leaving another fifteen men on the ground. All of the other soldiers had melee weapons, usually swords, others with pole-arms, such as halberds.

"Well, you guys thought ahead for the Academy. Regretfully, you'll not get there."

A couple charged at me, and I brought Shinobu on a horizontal strike, knocking them both through the train's right-hand window. I _tried_ taking Shinobu on a vertical strike for the third man running my way with what looked to be a broadsword. However, when I brought her up, she hit and stuck in the ceiling.

"Crap!" I yelled, and pulled up on Shinobu, which made me be above the attacker. I dropped, knocking his head with my boots.  
"Well, some courtesy here would be to allow me to retrieve my weapon," I announced, attempting to pull Shinobu free, as the soldiers approached slowly.

"I told you no!" I shouted, and flung a lit Freeze grenade in front of them. They scrambled back, as it exploded, creating a wall of solid glacial ice between us and them.

"How long will that hold them?" Shinobu asked. "I can't change into human form, stuck like this, or I'll be stuck as a human lodged inside a ceiling!"

"That ice is thick enough normally to make it a couple of hours, but in the summer heat it'll last half an hour, at best."

"Great."

I pulled and pulled as hard as I could, but I couldn't get Shinobu to budge. Then I heard the scraping. I looked over and saw what I feared would happen. Durendal had sent one of his Meisters to help his normal soldiers. The man was using fire attacks with a Demon Weapon cinquedea, a ridged and wide dagger from Italy. He was wearing a black cloak, but the hood was down, revealing a Meister about my age with black hair.

"Shit!" I struggled to pull Shinobu from the car, panicking. "Come on!"

As the last layer of ice started to melt, I said, "Shinobu, Soul Resonance!" However, when we matched wavelengths, she didn't glow with electricity. Instead, her whole weapon form started to glow. "What the hell?" I wondered, as Shinobu's form became longer, thinner.

When the glow subsided, Shinobu's weapon form appeared to be a Chinese Guan Do bladed-spear, with a golden staff and a crimson blade, covered in Phoenixes and Dragons.

"What's this?" I asked. "A new weapon form?"

"You're guess is just as good as mine," Shinobu answered, "but I suggest that we use it right now!"

I looked at the ice, and saw that it was incredibly thin. As Durendal's Meister readied the final blow to the wall, I yanked Shinobu from the ceiling, and stabbed her blade at the wall, pointed at the meister.

A large blast of wind emanated from Shinobu's cinnabar-colored blade, blowing the ice to pieces, obliterating the flames that had been shot by the Meister, and cutting large gashed into the skin of the men in front of the blast. However, the Meister dodged out of the way, causing the wind to blast the door behind him to smithereens.

"Damn!" I yelled. "I have an awesome new move! I'll call it Kama-Itachi, going with the whole 'Oni' thing!"

With this, the soldiers all looked at the Meister, as if pleading for help.

"Fine!" The Meister shouted. "I'm Black 13, and I challenge you to a one-on-one dual. Do you accept?"

"Sure, why not? I'll kill you, and then any of these other cowards who don't jump off of the train themselves afterwards," I answered.

With that, he jumped forwards with his dagger. He rushed in for a stab to my gut, but I blocked with the staff, stepped to the right, brought the bottom of the staff up behind his knee, and pulled. It should have caused him to fall for an easy kill, but he jumped forward, out of the trap. I stabbed after him, but this was parried by his dagger. Those ridges made for excellent deflecting!

"You're good!" I made for conversation. "Why don't you join Shinigami-sama?"

"Why would I do that? I can have so much more fun here!" He answered. "Money, women, and human souls! What more could I ask for? Certainly not that much from Death!"

I leapt at him after this last sentence, and when he dodged to the left, he struck out with his blade, which didn't physically touch me, but it sent out a small rope of flame, burning my left leg slightly.

"That wasn't good sportsmanship!" I remarked as I landed and turned back towards him.

"The same could be said of your own move!" He replied.

It was then that I had an idea. I leapt at Black 13, same as before, and he dodged to the left again, since he couldn't dodge right without jumping out of the window.

"That didn't work the first time! What made you think that it would work a second!" He taunted.

"Because last time I didn't do this!" I shouted, and used Shinobu's wind current to spin myself 90-Degrees. I was able to land a slice on his left arm, but he jumped away before I could cause serious damage.

"That was good. Why didn't you do that the first time, though?"

"Well, it might be because I've never actually done this weapon form before. You know as much as me by this point!"

"Well, let's see if I can beat this new form, then!"

He leapt at me, and shot flames straight towards my face. I used the wind current to redirect the fire upwards, lighting the roof on fire. As he went to land behind me, I turned and sent the wind current under _my_ feet, jetting forwards to within range of his landing.

"Jet Stream!" I yelled theatrically, and, when he landed (there wasn't anything that he could do fast enough to stop me), I stabbed into his calf, stopping his movement. Then, I used a pair of handcuffs I had for such occasions (don't ask) to buckle him into one of the remaining seats, and buckled his weapon's hilt to another seat with another pair of handcuffs, as it changed into the form of a young teenaged-boy with long hair and a matching black cloak to Black 13's.

"Stay there," I ordered. "These handcuffs change with weapon forms, and are anti-magic. There'll be no escape. Anyways," I said, turning to the shocked soldiers, and pointing Shinobu's resumed kanabo form at them, "I better hear some men jumping off of a certain train!"

The sound of them scrambling to the windows was music to mine, and, I'm sure, Shinobu's ears.


	13. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Shinobu

"You have to finish it!" Black 13 yelled at me (now in human form) and Xan in the now-otherwise-empty train car. "Durendal and the other twelve won't let me live anyway!"

"Well," Xan interrupted," since us and our friends are going to probably kill all of them, I don't think that you have to worry about that. Despite what you might have been told, Shinigami-sama is actually a pretty cool guy. He allowed me to live and attend the Academy, and trust me, I did a lot worse than anything that you've probably done."

Xan's a pretty cool guy, too, I thought. Then, Xan turned to me, and said:

"We have to meet up with Riley on the armored car. Durendal and the other twelve are inside there, and he won't be able to get in by himself, let alone battle solo."

"Okay," I answered, and changed back into a kanabo.

With that, Xan picked me up, and started climbing the ladder to the roof of the armored car.

"It'll have an escape hatch on top," he explained.

Xan

When we reached the top of the grayed-steel plated car, Riley was already there.

"What's up?" He asked, removing his earphones. "I've been here for a while."

"Just got held up in the details. Persuading twenty men to jump from a moving train requires some persuasion, after all."

"You got them to jump themselves? I thought that you had knocked them out with that wind attack you did."

"I don't remember that from before." Kylie muttered.

"Yeah, actually, it's new," I said proudly. "I thought that it was pretty awesome! Anyway," I started sounding serious, "time to blow this hatch to bits. You okay to fight?"

"Yeah."

"Shinobu, ready to kill Durendal?"

"You know it!" Shinobu answered.

"Time to test its' strength, then," I said, and put a fairly large-sized chunk of my own plastic explosive, called "X-14" onto the hatch. "Get down!" I yelled, and ran with Riley down to the edge of the roof, laying down.

It exploded with a loud _thud_, and when I looked at the hatch, and was disappointed to see that I had merely blown the pull handle off, which was still slightly hanging on.

"There's no way I have enough X-14 to blow that off," I said, depressed.

"Okay, one," Riley said, " I see what you did there. Two, that's what she said!"

I'm sure that if I could see Kylie, and even maybe even Eva, that I would see a look of embarrassment on both of their faces.

"Anyway, I could try more, or even-" It was then that the hatch popped open, and two people climbed out, one man and one woman, each with cloaks (the man's was red velvet, the woman's blue) and what were probably Demon Weapons, the man with a large steel hammer, the woman with a thick rapier. Both weapons were black, and seemed more sinister than they appeared.

"Hello, I'm Red 10, and this is...," The man started.

"I am Blue 11, and you've proven yourself important enough to warrant you're death from us. You should consider yourselves lucky to die by our soon-to-be royal hands."

"Not like you're talking too much," Red 10 muttered.

"Not like you're stuck up about it," muttered Kylie at the same time.

"So, who do you want, 11?" Red 10 asked.

"I think that I'll fight the punk with the impertinent brat of a weapon," Blue 11 answered haughtily.

"Fine. I fit the guy with the heavier weapon better, anyway," Red 10 remarked.

"You know, if I wasn't ordered to kill you," Red 10 said, moving into place as Blue 11 jumped at Riley, "I have a feeling that we'd get along fairly well."

"Something else tells me that you're wrong," I replied.

With that said, Red 10 ran at me, brandishing his hundred pound mallet.

One direct hit with that and I'm dead! I thought, dodging his first mighty swing. That cloak hides pure muscle!

"Ever thought about joining a baseball league?" I asked, dodging another hammer blow. This time, the hammer came down onto the roof of the steel car, which hadn't been damaged by my X-14. The section that was hit crumpled like paper.

"Not quite," he answered, stopping his rampage. "You think I'd do well."

"Not really. It's probably a foul for destroying the ball!" I said loudly as I ran forward and stomped Red 10's boot's toe section. There wasn't any reaction on his part, other than a surge of anger.

"You idiot!" he yelled, and picked up his hammer for another go, while I decided on a plan.

"Shinobu!" I called, and we activated Resonance. She charged with electricity, and I sent a field to surround Red 10's feet.

He immediately stopped moving towards me, since the steel toes in his leather boots had been charged to stick magnetically to the armored car. He attempted swinging his hammer at me a couple more times, but stopped when he realized its' futility.

"So, will you give up now?" I asked, and looked over to see Riley dodge a swipe from Blue 11.

"Why would I?" He answered. "Do you think I'm done for or something?"

"What?"

It was then that he activated _his_ Soul Resonance. His hammer changed into a Morning Star, with even _less_ reach than the war-hammer.

"And that helps how?" I asked.

"It helps like this!" He shouted, and swung at me. It was a good thing that I decided to dodge to the side, because the chain of his weapon extended a good ten feet further, flying easily by where I had been. Red 10 kept twirling it in circles, so I had to dodge every time it came past.

How do I beat him? I wondered.

"Taste my steel!" Red 10 yelled at me, and I realized that I was over-thinking things.

I immediately sent out a shield around me, which stopped the Star instantaneously.

"Thank you," I said, "for taunting me with the one _weakness_ that your weapon has over me! I forgot for a moment that I could do anything I want to with magnetic metals!"

"Wait! I didn't know that you could do that! Do over!"

"Sorry, no can do." I manipulated his weapon's Star to fling back around him, wrapping him up. The knockout blow to the skull from his weapon's top was a bonus. With them both down, I allowed him to slip off of the train.

He can have his chance to "Do over" later, I thought. If we make it out of this.


	14. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Xan

After Riley finished talking to his new friend, Gray Six, I walked over to him.

"We need to get inside," I said. "Your friend opened the hatch, and there's more of these Meisters to go around. You ready?"

"Yeah. Durendal said that there were thirteen, and we beat four, so we only have eleven to go, counting Li and Durendal." Riley replied.

"Actually," Gray Six interrupted, "you've only eliminated three. I'm a weapon. All of us weapons are given 'gray' as a code-name."

"So, ten meisters, then Li and Durendal," I said.

"Yep!"

"Okay. Either way, we need to take out some of the meisters before Death City. I'd say we have about half an hour, and we should at least narrow it down by several meisters," I told Riley. "Six, do you have anything else to tell us?"

"Only that the Meisters are directly below the ladder, and their compartment is divided from Li and Durendal's by a steel wall. And my name's Robbie."

"Well, that just makes it easy, doesn't it?"

"So, how're we going to get in without dying?" Riley wondered.

"Like this," I said, and threw a newly-lit "Smokin' Flash" grenade into the hatch. I heard "What the fu-" before it exploded, sending smoke and flashes of light into the car's room. I jumped down the hatch before Riley could react, and used Oni Resonance on the car to force all of the disorientated meisters and weapons inside to stick to the floors and walls.

The smoke cleared, and all of the Meisters in blue and red were stuck solidly to the walls and floor, the weapons in gray in a similar position. Only one weapon-meister pair wasn't.

It was as me and this meister in white were staring each other down that Riley climbed down the ladder.

"You should have given us some warning of what you're going to do. You're not that predictable, you know!" Kylie said, then she spotted the Meister.

Unlike the others, he had a white cloak that had an ornate pattern stitched into it, with the hood up. His face wasn't visible, but his weapon was. The weapon was a wickedly curved sword, a kris, shaped like a serpent's tail. If it touched us, I had a feeling that it would shred our bodies to pieces.

"You shall not pass," he said quietly. "I am White One, the most superior of Durendal's meisters, and, though you've disabled my inferiors, I was able to block your attack with no resonance with my weapon. I am invincible."

"All you power rangers are crazy," Kylie interrupted, changing halfway into human form.

"Little girls shouldn't speak out of turn!" White One shouted, jumped close to us faster than we could see, and slapped Kylie on the side of the face. Hard.

All of a sudden, Kylie's half-weapon form was shoved into my arms while she turned fully into human form. Eva changed into human form as well, and ran over to me, while Riley went bat-shit insane on White One's ass.

I turned away from the ultra-violence to check on Kylie.

"You okay?" I asked.

"I think so. He just surprised me, but it doesn't hurt as much as Riley's hurting that guy."

"Don't worry about it," Eva said. "It looks like Riley is avenging you pretty well, anyways."

I looked over, and saw that Riley had already taken White One down, and was facing us.

"Ready to save the day?" He asked.

"You know it!" I answered, scared for my life of Riley.


	15. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Xan

I walked up to the door set into the steel wall in the middle of the train car, careful not to step in White One's blood. I'll remember not to do _anything_ to Kylie, I thought. Then I knocked politely on the plated-steel door, trying to ignore the moans of the evil Meisters that were still glued to the car's floor and walls by magnetic energy.

"Open up, Durendal, Li!" I said loudly. "I don't want to make this harder than it already has been!"

"Why knock?" Kylie asked, trying to forget what she saw of White's beating from her brother. "It's not like they'll-"

The door swung open slowly, and as I looked into the completely-dark room inside, a metal orb came flying out at me.

"HIT THE FLOOR!" I shouted, and dropped myself and all of the evil Meisters onto the ground (I'm not _that_ uncaring, after all!).

The bomb exploded, but most of the shock-and all of the shrapnel-was absorbed by my magnetic fields. I looked up, and saw that the whole car outside of Durendal's "room" had been blown to bits, thrown by the explosion away from the car.

"What the crap was that?" Riley asked.

"_That_," I answered, "was one of Li's bombs. It appears that it is now time to answer _their_ knock. Do you mind fighting Li? I need to kill Durendal myself."

"Whatever you want, man. Long as we save Death City."

"Okay, but be warned: Li, no matter how old he looks, is a fierce fighter, and won't avoid cheap shots."

"He's evil. 'Course he'd cheat."

I then used my electrical fields to break the steel door off of its hinges with a screech, only to find an energy barrier blocking our way behind it.

"It appears that I'll have to do some heavier breaking!" I said, and before Riley had a chance to ask me about what that meant, I completely separated the walls of the room with the train car. Now we were on a flat steel platform attached in the middle of a train.

Where the room had been stood a completely semi-spherical field of energy, probably surrounding Durendal, and Li stood outside, apparently attempting to get into it.

"Durendal, come on!" Li shouted at the wall of energy. "There's two of them! They'll kill me!"

"Li!" I shouted. "What have you been reduced to since I left? When I knew you, you weren't that good of a person, but you'd never do this sort of thing! And begging for your life, too? That's just embarrassing!"

"What would you know?" Li asked in return. "You left, most of the others followed, and I was reduced to working for these people. Scientific research doesn't come without sacrifice, and the Academy and the Police were closing in. I was offered shelter from these forces if I would work for them. The provide me with the resources to conduct experiments!"

"Sorry to interrupt," Riley interrupted, "I'm Riley, and I was wondering what you mean by 'resources.' 'Cause if you mean Orochimaru-resources, we're gonna have a problem."

"Ah, yes, simpleton," Li said condescendingly. "By 'resources,' I mean test subjects, cash, and the various substances used for my experiments. If my information is correct, Xan's source of these would be Stein, minus subjects. He's much too cowardly to experiment like _that_."

"What would you know about bravery?" Kylie asked, angry. "We just saw you begging to get away from my 'simpleton' brother!"

With that, Riley said, "Okay, Xan, I'll fight Orochimaru here while you do your thing,"" and jumped at Li, swinging his claymore, while Li pulled a short katana out of his sleeve and countered.

Meanwhile, I started using my lighting energy to search for weaknesses on the outside of the dome of energy. I probed the whole thing, and when I found no weak spots inside, I said to Shinobu:

"Shinobu, we need to activate that staff mode again. Do you think that you can do it?"

"I _know_ I can." She replied, and we matched and strengthened our Soul Wavelengths.

The club of her kanabo form gave way to the staff and sword-like blade of the Guan Dao, as I shouted:

"Crimson Blade of the Phoenix!" That was mostly for myself, and my sense of showman-ship.

I directed a tearing wave of my kama-itachi at the dome, which was shredded at the attack, but started to repair itself.

"No you don't!" I shouted, and used repeated waves of kama-itachi to shred the dome completely. Durendal was exposed for the battle, as we were in the desert, closing fast on the Academy.

"You insolent child!" Durendal said pridefully, brandishing his wicked sword. "I cannot waste time fighting you!"

"Well, if you didn't notice," I replied, "you kinda' are, and you were hiding inside of that dome like a coward!"

In a rage, he swung at me, and I blocked it with Shinobu's staff. I did my old "bring the end of the staff up and cripple a mo' fo,' when he pulled a normal dagger an slashed my arm.

I jumped back before any permanent damage was done, and looked at my deeply-sliced arm.

"Okay, two things," I said angrily. "One, you fuckin' cut my fuckin' arm, you Alucard-lookin' muthaf**ker! Two, you could have stabbed at a better area. I mean, the arm _was_ exposed, but there's almost no chance of a severe bleed."

"I'll remember that next time!" He said, cutting at me again. But I knew better this time. I dodged back and used a kama-itachi to slice at him. He dodged, and sent a wave of energy at me. I tried to dodge, but was too slow, and my coat's tall collar got a hole on the left side, just a few centimeters from my throat. Too close.

Pissed off, I sent a rage-filled blast of my razor-sharp wind back at him. It shredded his fancy cape, lifted him into the air, and sent his Demon-Weapon flying off of the train. He landed on his feet, and casually (and I thought prudishly) started talking.

"Do you know why you won't kill me today?" He asked.

"I doubt that this will come true, but why?" I replied.

"Are you sure that it's smart talking to him?" Shinobu whispered to me.

"Because I'm going to escape with this!" Durendal said, and threw down a smoke bomb. However, as soon as it exploded, I sent a small gust of normal wind his way, clearing the smoke. It revealed him turning to run, caught off-guard by the disappearance of the haze that he had just created.

Annoyed, I sent another wave of cutting wind at his leg, but misappropriated the power behind it. His leg below the knee was severed, to mine and Shinobu's horror, leaving us gasping in shock.

"What did you do?" Shinobu asked.

"I'm..not..entirely...sure," was my only answer.

I approached Durendal, as he sat up, gasping in pain.

"What the hell was that for!" He asked.

"More or less an accident," I replied quickly. "Anyways, Shinobu, revenge time! Change into human form!"

She changed into human form, careful not to look at the incapacitated Durendal's leg.

Shinobu

"Do you remember me?" I asked.

"Fairly, no. Should I?" Durendal asked back.

"You killed my father! A year ago, in Prague! You and your men killed him for something!"

"Oh, well, you can't expect me to remember everyone I kill! After all, I sometimes just kill people to look cool."

"Shinobu!" Xan called from the victorious Riley, Kylie, and Eva's side. "Do it. You're not helping anyone, especially yourself or him, by dragging this out!"

I quickly thought about my father, his death, and what he'd want me to do in this situation.

"Okay!" I said to Durendal. "I know what I'll do to you now!"


	16. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Xan

Secretly, I was hoping that Shinobu might let this guy live. He was a bastard, sure, but there are plenty of bastards that just needed a good slapping around, not killing. However, I had experience from many instances, and I knew humans couldn't be denied revenge, particularly in the realm of family, so I let Shinobu make her decision.

Not turning from Durendal, she made her declaration:

"I have decided that my best interests would be to spare this man," she announced.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" Durendal thanked her. "I'll make this worth your while! I'll give you money, I'll give you-" He stopped as a kick from Shinobu knocked a good third of his teeth out of his jaw. This wasn't an ordinary kick, you see. Shinobu's leg below the knee had transformed into a kanabo's club, and it's steel studs had knocked some "sense" into Durendal, shutting him up quick.

-"Hey!" a voice yelled from the top of a neighboring car. Gray Six. "Careful with those explosions!" He yelled. "I'm lucky I heard it with enough time left to jump to this one with Blue 11!"

"Well, glad you're okay, then," I answered, then my phone started ringing:

_"__You're all rock stars now in a network town/ there's no place to go,_

_to be on your own/ making friends and foes  
watch the network grow,"_

"Music after a fight...How familiar." said Riley.

Ignoring him, I answered my cell phone, and said, "Hello?"

"It's Kid. Need help?" Kid answered.

"Well, I might," I answered, seeing the magnetic field around the evil Meisters start to grow weak. I couldn't make another one _that_ well after a fight like the one I had just had. "How far are we from Death City, do you know?"

"Yes, we can see you, it should be about five to ten minutes, but-" he started.

"Xan!" Patti yelled over the mouthpiece of Kid's phone. "Are you okay?"

"Yes Patti, I'm fine. Stick with Kid, and you can save me from these bad guys that are waking up now. Just tell him to attack them at the station. There's nine of them, all with mildly-disorientated Demon Weapons."

"Okay!" She said excitedly. "We'll save you then! Oh, by the way, me, Kid, Luc, and Liz say thank-you!"

As she hung up, Riley asked "Who was that? I think I heard Patti."

"Friends. We need to keep these guys busy until the train gets to Death City, in about five minutes."

"Can't you just zap them again?"

"Well, no. I don't have _that much_ soul energy. It'd have to be a last resort as of now, and I can take these chumps without Resonance, anyways, at least to hold them off."

"So, don't try to win?" Eva asked.

"Well, don't disable all of them. I would like to enjoy our 'welcoming party' at the station. Anyway, time to announce a message to the passengers," I said. "Shinobu?" I invited.

"Sure!" She said eagerly, and, in human form with me, walked up to the slowly rising and arming Meisters, announced a message to them:

"Good day, passengers," she said politely. "You've woken up from a sudden nap, but our travel plans persist on time! If you look to the forward position of the train, you'll notice Death City. Unfortunately, most of your party, including your bosses, are not able to attend this arrival. Kindly surrender your weapons, and we'll offer you nice consolations for your peaceful raising-of-the-white-flag."

"And what makes you think we'll give up like that?" One of the Meisters in blue asked grudgingly. I saw that him and the other Meisters were all Academy student-age.

"Because," I spoke up, "Shinigami-sama can give you what Li and Durendal never could. The care of a family. Not one that makes you kill other Meisters, that forces you to kill innocents, or sees you rewarded with blood-money. I can vouch that Shinigami-sama and the Meisters of DWMA _will_ treat you right. They helped me, and you are not beyond the point of no return. Just go with your other surrendered comrades up there," I said, pointing at Gray Six.

After some reluctant stares, a three of the meisters, and four weapons left to go to Gray Six, who high-fived them, then sat down with the others.

"Don't get involved with this, no matter what!" I shouted at the surrendering party. "Riley, you have a choice to help me hold these Meisters off. Will you help me?"

"Sure. No killing, though," he answered.

Some of the Meisters attacked directly at us, others circled around behind. We blocked the attackers' strikes, but we couldn't break out; **We were surrounded**.


	17. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Xan

So, as we got to the outskirts of Death City, Riley and I injured, and Gray 6 helping us fight (that was a surprise!), the Academy Meisters ran to our aid. Kid was first, shooting at the enemies, and accidently-on purpose blasting Gray 6, thinking he was another opponent.

Then followed the other long range Meisters, in a large crowd, wearing out and dragging down the remainder of Durendal's Meisters. I saw Patti briefly change to human form and wave at me, Black Star taking down an evil Meister with his ninja-sword, and Maka trying to close the gap between her and Riley. Finally, the Death Scythes arrived, taking Durendal's Meisters prisoner, and escorting the Meisters that had surrendered in peacefully. All according to plan.

We were hauled off to the infirmary, on the way giving and receiving high-fives from every Academy student we passed, being carried by some Death Scythes. While we being tended to in our hospital-grade beds, everyone but the nurse and Doctor Stein was shut out, giving us time to talk.

"So," Kylie said, "how did everyone know we were coming? And how come Kid, Liz, and Patti aren't in jail?"

"Well," I said, smiling, "you'll see. I'm sure Shinigami-sama'll bring it up, and I like suspense, after all."

"Wait, you knew that we'd be rescued at the City?" Riley asked, getting his back stitched up, Maka at his side. "I thought that I was going to die! By the way, where's the Meisters?"

"Excuse me," Stein interrupted, "but we've put them, except for Gray 6, obviously," he pointed to Eva, where, seated next to the bed, were Luc and Gray 6, "in separate treatment areas, split between the surrendered Meisters and Weapons, and the fighters. And by the way, Xan," he said. "You owe me an apology."

"For what?" I asked calmly.

"You didn't stay gone long enough for my test results to come back yet. I analyzed those explosions in Rio, and the results came back today."

"And?"

"It turns out that they have trace amounts of two chemicals that you didn't have access to. These prove your innocence. If you had only stayed gone for two days longer, you would have been called back here anyways as an innocent bystander, who just happened to have an evil teacher."

"Do you know what he did all of this for?" I asked.

"No, as a matter of fact. We'll question him on his motivations when he awakens. Until then, we won't be able to guess."

Just then, there was a knock on the door. It was opened, and Sid stuck his head into the room.

"Shinigami-sama would like to speak with you," he said. "He's waiting in the Death Room when you're ready."

_Inside the Death Room_

"Hello, and congratulations!" Shinigami-sama greeted, more serious than usual. "Thanks to you five, and the Meister Luc, who I've already spoken to, a great crisis has been diverted! I admittedly would not have known, however, without Xan's call to me, just before boarding the train."

"Hold on!" Riley interrupted. "You called him _when_?"

"After I called you to tell you that they were getting onto the train, I made a second phone call."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Kylie asked.

"Xan likes his secrets," Shinobu answered for me.

"That's not cool!" Eva said.

"Anyways," Shinigami-sama said, trying to avoid an argument, "you've saved Death City, and we, sadly, had originally had you pegged as criminals. For this offense, please ask for anything reasonable that you may wish."

I immediately had an answer to this offer.

"I believe that I speak for all of us when I say that I would like you to give pardon to those former Meisters of Durendal's who surrendered peacefully. And, importantly, allow them attendance to the Academy. They have potential, and most of them have been lead wrong by Durendal in the first place. A case-in-point would be two in particular, Gray 6 and Black 13."

"I don't know," Shinigami-sama said doubtfully. "I would be concerned about the safety of the other students."

"You could let us be their chaperones!" Riley said.

"You could even let us be accountable for their actions," Kylie added.

"Hmm..." Shinigami-sama thought. As tension mounted, I worried for those 'numbered Meisters,' as I called them. They were scarcely the same age as us, if not younger. I _knew_ that Black 13 had to be younger than I, and his weapon was about the same age.

"If you're in charge of them, okay!" Shinigami-sensei decided.

"YEAH!" I shouted uncharacteristically. "Uh, I mean, good."

"I didn't know you cared so much," Shinobu laughed quietly.

"So, go get them!" Shinigami-sama resolved. "They're in the cell next to the one that Xan stayed in when he first arrived here!"

_At the Cell_

We arrived at the locked cell, right next to the one whose door was stuck into the wall. The guard that I had punched my first new day of class was guarding it.

"What?" He yelled. "You again?" And he deserted his post, running (like a little girl, you could say) down the hallway, out of sight.

"Well, someone leaves an impression," Shinobu commented.

With that, I opened the door on the surrendered Meisters (it wasn't locked), and there sat Gray 6, Black 13 with his weapon next to him, and three other Meisters, in red and blue, with four weapons, in gray.

"Hey!" Riley greeted. "We're here to let you out! Also, whoever wants to can join the Academy is allowed."

"I would recommend it," I said. "You can fight and kill the _real_ villains, like Li and Durendal, and Afreets, or demons, as you may know them. Anyone who wants to attend can come with us," I said, and motioned Riley to start walking.

As Riley, Kylie, and Eva started to walk away, everyone followed, except for Black 13. I walked into the cell, and sat down on the floor next to him and his weapon.

"Hello again," I said. "You should really join the Academy."

"Why?" He asked. "To work with Death?"

"I'm sure almost nothing you've heard from Li and Durendal is truthful. Shinigami-sama's a nice guy, and after all, you and your partner-"

"Gray 13," Black 13's partner interjected.

"-Gray 13 are awesome at fighting. You almost defeated me, a top student of the Academy and Li's, without activating full Resonance. With some small amount of training, you could be the strongest team here."

"I have stronger powers than I can use now?" Black 13 said, interested.

"Yeah. How did you think that my weapon changed shape? I'm sure if you put in enough training, Gray 13 could do the same."

"In that case, I'll join the Academy!" He announced. "What do you say, Gray?"

"Sure, why not?" Gray 13 answered. "We'll join."

"Come on, then," I said as I lead him out of the cell, to join the rest, following Riley. "I'll be your guardian myself."

But my reintroduction to everyone was not complete. As we left the dungeons to the main school building, I heard someone shouting in relief, and was suddenly knocked over.

"Xan!" Patti yelled, holding onto me and crying. "I thought that you were hurt! But you're okay now! I've been-" She stopped then, as I kissed her, for quite a long time, on the forehead.

"Calm down," I said quietly. "It's okay now. I'm okay. Everyone's back, and okay." Then I looked up. Everyone, even the normally-serious Black 13 and Gray 13 were standing in place, mouths hanging open in shock, at my mild display of romance.


	18. Epilogue

Epilogue

Shinobu

As we stared our opponent down, Xan said, "Shinobu, this guy's dangerous. Let's activate Oni Resonance." He sounded worried.

We activated out Oni Resonance, the bluish lightning spreading over everything around us. Nonetheless, the enemy, dagger in hand, jumped at us, at a speed surpassing that of the lightning Xan threw at him. He finally reached our final defense, the circular area directly around us within a meter radius. _That_ finally stopped him, throwing him back out of our direct reach. Xan sent some electricity at him, but this was redirected by the damn channeled dagger of his!

"You're not bad," he remarked, and his dagger's resonance activated. The enemy Meister was coated in black flames, making him look like an ebony Human Torch with a knife.

"Oh, shit," Xan commented, and sent lightning at the Meister. He countered with a blast of scorching black fire, which not only consumed the lightning, but cut through the wall of lightning Xan sent to block its' path.

Xan jumped to the side, but the fire caught his arm, leaving a black scorch mark.

"Damn!" He yelled, as the fire-beast closed in. It slowly reached out its' scorching arm slowly, as if to finish us off. Then, all of a sudden, the flames died. Standing there, arm outreached to assist Xan up was Black 13 (real name Eliaz, but still called 13), with his partner Gray 13 (whose name was Darius) next to him.

"You need to learn when to hold off!" Xan scolded, being helped up and wiping at the scorch mark near his shoulder, while I changed back into human form.

"You're just pissed off because I beat you easy," Thirteen responded.

"Good job, Darius!" I complemented, and Darius cheeks turned a dark red.

"You did, uh, good, too," he said quietly.

Xan

All of a sudden, I heard someone yell, "Xan!" I knew it was time to brace for impact, and did so just in time to be knocked over by Patti again.

"Are you okay?" She asked, by my side on the ground.

"Fine!" I answered with a smile.

We'd been training with Thirteen and Darius for about a week, and he was making progress fast. He'd been able to use full Resonance within three days, and had beaten me twice already.

Every time we fought however, Patti would run into me and ask if I was okay. It was annoying, but in a good way. I knew she was just acting like this because she wanted to, and could be a perfectly normal girl if she wanted to.

Otherwise in Death City, everyone was settling back to their usual schedule. Luc was going out with Patti's sister, Liz; Riley and Maka were still strong as ever, same with Kylie and Soul; Eva was going out with Robbie, otherwise known as Gray 6; and Shinobu was close to going out with Darius, I suspected, based on visual clues and other sources of information I had.

The surrendered Meisters and Weapons were, on the other hand, a different story. With the exception of Robbie, Thirteen, and Darius, they'd all had difficulties adapting to normal life. While they would eventually adapt, being used for years for crime had taken its' toll, and often, one of them would get a little too "into" their fights, when Luc, Riley, or I would have to calm them down. They still needed attention, and Stein's girlfriend, the Death-Scythe Mary Mjolnir, was helping counsel them. With her and our help, they'd be fine.

It wasn't all perfect, however. The non-surrendered Meisters were being persuaded while locked in their cells to surrender and attend the Academy. Durendal was serving a life-sentence for planning an attack on the Academy. However, Li had escaped, and I was sure he'd look for revenge, and I would meet him head on, as was my fate.

Meanwhile, I would keep on my studies, and watch my friends and myself become more powerful than we could believe.

** This was the Death Weapon Meister Academy, after all, where anything could happen.**


End file.
